A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
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A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master Movie Review
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is a 1988 fantasy slasher film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Robert Englund. It’s one of the weaker entries in the franchise.
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“You shouldn’t have buried me. I’m not dead“
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Freddy Krueger returns in Kristen’s dreams and persuades her to summon a friend. Alice, who is drawn into Kristen’s dream, wakes up to realize that Kristen is in danger. My main issue with this movie is its overall staleness of the inconsequential and familiar plot. This was the fourth entry in the series, so you’d expect something new from the people involved, but it was just the same old formula of its predecessors repeated once again.
With that being said, the movie has its bright spots. The practical effects are phenomenal and some of the goriest and most imaginative sequences had superb effects and very creative imagery that really was memorable to witness. The fantastical scenes stole the show for me here as the franchise clearly moved toward that genre from the third entry onward.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 also had a decent beginning, but eventually the movie became too predictable and standard in its plot. As for Freddy, he was ridiculously campy in this installment. Some of his lines were so silly that they made me laugh. This campy element to his dialogue was both fun and stupid.
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As for the other characters, they are rather forgettable. Individually, they did not offer much, but as a group I found them to be pretty okay. Lisa Wilcox delivered the best performance of the bunch, but everybody did a solid enough job on their own. The movie looks and sounds great due to strong VFX and an excellent 80s soundtrack that was quite a banger.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is a weak installment of this franchise. It has its strengths – the practical effects are superb, the fantastical scenes are quite memorable and Freddy is as delightfully campy as ever – but the overall plot is mediocre, the characterization is subpar and the movie is especially forgettable when compared to its predecessor.
My Rating – 3.5
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